Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Type: Short Communication
Published: 2020-12-21
Page range: 561–563
Abstract views: 216
PDF downloaded: 1

Juvenile spider riding a bug—phoresy in Baltic amber?

Research Associate Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Josef Schraffl Strasse 2a, A 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
General

Abstract

Phoretic dispersal of arachnids (e.g., Araneae, Pseudoscorpions, mites) clinging to insects (Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera etc.) are reported from extant species and fossil inclusions preserved in amber. A Baltic amber piece contains a piesmatid (Heteroptera, Piesmatidae) carrying a juvenile spider (Araneae, cf. Clubionidae) on its back. This is the first report of such an association between a bug and a spider and it is questioned herein, what might be the reason for the documented assemblage.

References

  1. Bartlow, A.W. & Agosta, S. (2020) Phoresy in animals: review and synthesis of a common but understudied mode of dispersal. Biological Reviews, 24 pp.

    https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12654

    Dunlop, J.A. & Penney, D. (2012) Fossil arachnids. Siri Scientific Press, Manchester, 192 pp.

    Ebermann, E. (2004) Tragewirt-Gemeinschaften (Phoresie) bei Spinnentieren (Arachnida). Denisia, (N.S.), 12, 14: 93–110.

    Groehn, C. (2015) Einschlüsse im Baltischen Bernstein. Wachholtz Verlag–Murmann Publishers, Kiel / Hamburg, 424 pp.

    Heiss, E. & Péricart, J. (1983) Revision of Palaearctic Piesmatidae (Heteroptera). Mitteilungen der Münchner Entomologischen Gesellschaft, 73, 61–171.

    Popov, Y.A. (2001) Fossil piesmatids from Baltic amber (Heteroptera: Pentatomomorpha, Piesmatidae). Mitteilungen des Geologisch-Paläontologischen Instituts der Universität Hamburg, 85, 211–220

    Shear, M.A., Schawaller, W. & Bonamo, P.M. (1989) Record of Palaeozoic pseudoscorpions. Nature, 342 (6242), 527–529.

    https://doi.org/10.1038/341527a0

    Weitschat, W. (2009) Predator, prey, parasites and stowaways-snapshots of the amber forest. Denisia, 26, 243–256.

    Weitschat, W. & Wichard, W. (2009) Chapter 6 Baltic Amber. In: Penney, D. (Ed.). Biodiversity of fossils in amber from the major world deposits. Siri Scientific Press, Manchester, pp. 80–115.

    Wunderlich, J. (2004) Beiträge zur Araneologie. Band 3 A, B. Jörg Wunderlich, Hirschberg–Leutershausen. Chapter: Phoresy in fossil spiders pp. 180–181; Chapter: Fossil spiders (Araneae) of the families Clubionidae and Miturgidae (questionable) in Baltic and Dominican amber, pp. 1612–1619.